The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-10-05
STATEMENT OF THE DEBT Br TREASURER

CLARK AND GRIFFITH.
= Under the act of July 26, Is43
: Gen Clark had stated the account il
each year from 1843 to 1S47, in
elusive. allowing the compound interes
Z upon all monies due from the State tx
: said fund" That his calculation was cor
: rect has never been disputed, so far as
know His books are now lost, but We
3 know the result as shown on July 26, 1S47
= the last statement made By him, as he went
: out of Office in November that year. This
: preservation is complete and in the most
: authentic form. 1t IS preserved in Gen
! Griffith's Ledger, D. II, and Is inserted
! therein by Gen. Griffith in the performance
= Of bis sworn official duty, prescribed by the
act Of February ., 1913, which required
! him to credit interest on the fund.- as it was
: shown by the books in the Treasury. From
this statement on said page Il, it appears
: | that SI02, ,32I.40 WAS ALL THE DEBT then
: due by the State to the University Fund.
: Gen. Griffith. who had assumed Office as
State Treasurer IN November, 1847, then,
: on February %, 184S, the date of the
last named act, in obedience to its
: mandate to ascertain the amount due by
the State, and on which he was 10 allow in
terest, made the examination and inyesti-
CATION necessary for that purpose, and stat
ed the account in full up to that date Feb
! |
credit interest. In this statement he
reached the result that after paying the
whole of the $4,000 appropriated under
/ the act of 1876 for the erection of build
ings for the University, there then remain
ed due by the State to the University or
Seminary Fund (they are the same thing)
the sum of $1S,5II.50. 1t is unneces-
sary to sustain this conclusion brought
about by the official and sworn action of
two of the most honorable and competent
men ever in the State, that l should fortify
it by other authority.
AoQUIEsCENCE IN GRIFFITH AND cLARK's
STATEMENT.
But as everything, every authentic and
official act concerning the fund and the
State of Mississippi relative to it, is
now disputed, will state that this
result was Acquiesced in and acted on
officially by every Legislature which sat in
| Mississippi from that time to the close of
the war, and after the war, was acquieseed
in by every Legislature prior to the year
1880. Moreover, the Trustees of the Univer-
sIty acquiesced in t,and acted on IT officially
| IN the most solemn manner, in a memorial
to the Legislature. This acquiesCence and
| acknowledgment extended not only to the
mere arithmetical calculation on which the
result was based, but also to the principles
| and data on which the calculations were
made, and especially to the amount there
in found to be due by the State to the Uni
versity.
FURTHER ENDOwMENTs.
Acting on this idea, the Legislature,
IN the act of 1913, made "a further
| endowment so that the annual income of
| the University should amount to near $II,-
| 00O.GO, sum $4,000 larger than Gov.
- 6
at Oxford. 1t will be noted also, that the
act of IS4s proceeded on the idea that the
amount of the fund then due, viz $78,-
| 511.50, should be preserved as capital, and
all subsequent collections from others
of debts due the Seminary Fund, should
also be thus preserved. But this did
not suit the University. 1t wanted more
money, as in 1880. It's needs were for IAN
INCREASE OF REVENUE" Finding that the
| Legislature was extremely liberal the effort
was made at the next session, January 1,
! 1850, and succeeded. to get further en-
dowment." So, finding that could be OBJ
| tained, the idea of PRESERVING THE SUB
sEQUENT COLLECTIONS FROM THE SEMINARY
| FUND AS CAPITAL, AND WHICH WAS SO PRoNII-
NENr TWO YEARS before, WAS ABANDONED; and
an act was passed March 3, 1850, giving
the University as further endowment"
| $4,000 more per annum, and also S3, 600
more in addition, out of SUBSEQUENT col
lections from the Seminary Fund" (See
Revised Code. 1857, p. 1879 Is it to be
| presumed that the Legislature in 184S, and
| again in 1850, would have thus acted in
making these FURTHER ENDowMENTs' if
it had been asserted by the Trustees, or
| supposed by the Legislature, that the State
was indebted to the University, not in the
sum of $78,511.50, as ascertained by
II
whole amount of the sales made in 1888,
with simple interest at per cent. to Jan
uary l, 1913, and compound interest at
per cent. afterwards, then amounting, on
that mode of computation, L suppose, to
more than a half million of dollars?
Then at the next session, February p,
1854 (see Code 1857, p. 1897 an act was
passed giving 1900 more per annum for
a Law Professorship and then we come to
the eventful year 1856. and what took place
then
PROCEEDINGS IN 1856.
The Trustees up to that time acquiesced
in the Indebtedness of the State as
shown by Treasurers Griffith and Clark, as
above stated, getting in addition to the in
terest on that debt, these liberal largesses,
amounting at that time to more than S11,-
226.78 annually, besides the interest due on
the Fund There was not a whisper or sus-
picion that the State owed more, or that
the Trustees claimed more, Notwithstanding
the University, in the language of the me-
mortal of the Trustees in 1880 tsee Sen
ate journal, D. 259) needs (needed) AN
INCREASE of revenue" The Board of Trus-
tees was then, as in 1880 land SO it is
now) composed of the most eminent men
in the State. 1t is needful to state here
, who they we're in 1856. They were Hon.
, Jacob Thompson, President of the Board,
Gov. Jno. J. McRae, Gen. Charles Clark,
, Hon. J. W. Clapp, Chief Justice @. p.
Smith. b. w. Earle, Hon. j. Alexander Ven
tress, Hon. JAS. Brown, ex-Chief Justice
w. L. Sharkey, Hon. A. II. Pegues, Hon.
1. n. Davis, Hon. Geo. II. Young, and Hon.
James NJ Howry, Secretary.
MEMORIAL OF THE TRUSTEES IN 1856.
On 18th January, 1856 (see H. j., p.
! 1897 Judge Sharkey, who was then also a
member of the Legislature, presented a
memorial to the Legislature signed by ALL
The TRUSTEES, in which were represented
in very able and persuasive manner, the
wants of the University, it's progress, its
D future usefulness and greatness if prop
: erly sustained. and alluding also to the
: enormous losses which the University had
Z sustained, which had reduced that fund, as
Z they asserted, by about 75 per cent. Then
they appealed to the Legislature for relief
out of the State Treasury for the wants of
9 the University then Immediately pressing.
d The memorial was distinct and unequiy-
! ocal recognition that the losses that had
J. been sustained were the losses of the fund.
: and not the slightest hint was made, and as
u believe, and L think can show, not the
/ slightest IDEA WAS THEN ENTERTAINED By
e rHE BoARD OF TRUSTEES, Or ANY MEMBER OF
5 1 lna tota fnr
q losses or owed the fund one cent beyond
the amount fixed and ascertained by Treas
/ urers Griffith and Clark, as above stated
q The Hon. Jacob Thompson, twenty-five
p days thereafter, in a report to Gov. Nc
Rae, dated January 10, and submitted By
"a him to the Legislature (see III. j.
N p. 303l referring to this memorial, des
y ignated the Trustees, including himself
st as sssupplicants'' in it, asking favors anc
e donations at the hands of the Legislature
J. instead of asking simple justice, as h'
= THEN ASSERTED THEY WOULD HAVE DONE II
= THEY HAD BEEN IN POSSESSION OF AUTHENTTt
le RECORDS which they have fhadl since dis
covered
-e Before you go further, stop and refec
, upon the situation on January Is, 1856; th'
history of the fund; the sales and tn,
1t losses; the investment in Planters Bani
is | stock. and the circumstances attending tn
I. loss; the price of $3.50 per acre for whicl
\ | the land was sold on credit, and tn
L average price at which lands of similar quail
% ity we're sold in Mississippi by the Unites
- States in the same month of the same year
sr viz: $1.52 per acre; the statement of tn
10 account between the State and the Funs
by the Treasurers Clark, and Griffith; tn
n acquiescence in it by all parties for so lonl
20 a period; the liberality of the State in al
inf af